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The roots of the charity Snow-Camp go back to 2003, when a group of youth workers took 13 children and teenagers from London to the French Alps for a snow-sports trip.

“There was just something profound about the mountains and the way that snow sports impacted on the young people,” says Dan Charlish, Snow-Camp’s founder and director. “We just knew we had something really special.”

As Charlish puts it, the youngsters in the group “were at a high risk of becoming involved in the negative activities that were surrounding them.” The charity’s mission is to give young people from disadvantaged backgrounds an introduction to snow sports, and today there are programmes in London, Bristol, Cardiff, the Midlands and Glasgow.

But it’s more than just a chance to pick up a new hobby – further down the line Snow-Camp provides support and training to help young people forge careers in the snow sports world.

In the latest episode of Ski Sunday, broadcast yesterday on BBC Two, snowboarder Jenny Jones met Jonjoe Boulter, a ski instructor who grew up in Hackney Wick, east London.

“I didn’t know who I was so I was just kind of following the crowd, trying to fit in,” Jonjoe says of his teenage years. “I always tried to be a big man. I wanted to show that I was this cool, big person when really I wasn’t. Until I started skiing I didn’t have a clue who I was.”

Already interested in skateboarding, Jonjoe went to a Snow-Camp weekend at the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead and fell in love with skiing. As his interest developed, Snow-Camp offered him an apprenticeship, giving him a chance to start work in the industry. He’s now a qualified ski coach in Verbier, Switzerland, and his next goal is to become an instructor with the Warren Smith Ski Academy.

Each year, there’s a series of fundraising events to support the charity’s efforts. In March 2016, the Coeur Blanc marathon – an annual event in which 20 teams try to ride all 52 lifts in the Méribel Valley in just one day – raised over £250,000.

Events this summer include a kitesurfing festival from June 9 to 11 at Hayling Island, near Portsmouth; a charity auction in London on July 12; and a paddle boarding weekend from July 21 to 23 at Bewl Water in Kent.